


Checking In

by celtic7irish



Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Gen, I AM IN DENIAL, Implied closeness, Laura and the kids do not exist, Post arm-loss Phil
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-09-14
Updated: 2015-09-14
Packaged: 2018-04-20 19:01:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,854
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4798814
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/celtic7irish/pseuds/celtic7irish
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After Age of Ultron, Clint Barton tracks down Phil Coulson.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Checking In

Phil stared critically down at his arm, running over the options in his head again. It wasn’t like the technology didn’t exist. If he was willing to go to Stark, he might even be able to get a replacement that felt no different than before he had lost the arm. He sighed; Stark was in enough trouble as it was, and Phil really didn’t want to ask him for help. The man still didn’t know he was even still alive, after all, and he was content to keep it that way. Besides, while Tony would probably help him, he’d probably hold it over his head forever. Phil didn’t like giving up his advantage; Tony was still convinced that he’d cheerfully taze him if provoked enough. He wasn’t wrong.

 

Phil wondered idly if the rumors he had heard regarding Helen Cho were correct. The word was that she was both at the top of her field, and that she was very discrete when it came to her patients. But the last Phil had heard, she was still recovering from Ultron’s attempt on her life. So that was out, for the moment at least. Maybe he’d have Skye look into her a bit before approaching her.

 

There was a knock on the door to his office, and Phil sighed, putting it out of his mind for the moment. There was nothing to be done right now, and he was getting too old for fieldwork anyway. He could sign papers just as well with one hand as with two, though he was glad that he’d always been ambidextrous, or this would’ve been a whole lot more difficult.

 

“Come in,” he called out, turning to face the door and leaning casually against the edge of his desk, his face carefully arranged into an expression of polite interest. When Skye opened the door and peeked through, he relaxed into a smile. “Skye,” he greeted warmly. “Come in.”

 

Skye gave him a return smile, then stepped into the office, closing the door behind her. “How are you doing?” she asked quietly.

 

Phil shrugged. “Better than expected, probably,” he answered honestly. “After all, I’ve been dead before. This is nothing more than a minor inconvenience.”

 

Skye didn’t smile at his attempt at humor, not that he’d really expected her to. The Inhuman still felt guilty about what her mother had tried to do with their people, and hated that she’d fallen for it, however temporarily. “I’m sorry,” she murmured helplessly, one hand reaching out as if to touch him before dropping.

 

Phil straightened up. “Not your fault,” he told her sternly. She nodded, but Phil knew that she didn’t believe him. She probably wouldn’t, no matter how often he told her that what had happened to him wasn’t her fault. He had grabbed the shard, even knowing what it would probably do to him, and Mack had acted to save his life; there had been no time for second-guessing, no time to ask permission. They had done what they had needed to do, and suffered the consequences.

 

“What brings you here, Skye?” he prompted. “Or do you prefer Daisy?”

 

Skye shook her head. “No, Daisy is my parents’ name for me. Here, I’m just Skye.” Phil nodded; he could understand her need to separate her personal life from SHIELD, and he couldn’t say he blamed her.

 

“Fair enough,” he allowed. “So what can I do for you, Skye? Or are you just here to check up on me?” He had to admit that was a distinct possibility. Without May here, the job of keeping an eye on Phil seemed to have fallen squarely to Skye’s shoulders, though Mack found enough excuses to check in now and again, too.

 

“Oh, right,” Skye said, suddenly flustered. “There’s a man standing outside The Bus demanding to see you,” he admitted.

 

Phil frowned, already moving for the door, Skye trailing behind him. “And you didn’t think to say something before now?” he asked.

 

Skye blushed. “Uh…not really,” she admitted sheepishly. “I’m pretty sure he’s an Avenger.”

 

Phil stopped dead, turning his head to glare at her in disbelief. “An Avenger? Did he give you a name?” He was pretty sure it wasn’t Natasha; she wouldn’t have bothered to wait outside. The same with Tony Stark. And it was unlikely that Thor would have any reason to visit him. That left a very, very short list.

 

Skye shook her head. “No, but he’s got a bow and arrows.” She smiled. “I guess he figured he didn’t need to introduce himself.”

 

Phil sighed, his eyes closing for a brief moment. Clint Barton. Of course he would be the first to figure out what was going on. The archer had an uncanny sense for noticing when things weren’t adding up. He had probably started putting things together when Fury had shown up with the Helicarrier. Something that big could never have been kept a secret if at least some part of SHIELD didn’t still exist. And if Nick Fury wasn’t the director, that left a very small number of people to take his place. And Barton had heard of the T.A.H.I.T.I. Project before, even if he hadn’t been paying attention at the time.

 

“Sir, are you okay?” Skye asked, falling back to formality in her worry.

 

Phil offered her a reassuring smile. “I’m fine, Skye,” he assured. “Please let the others know that we will be living within the hour. I’ll take care of our unexpected guest.” Skye eyed him for a moment, but then simply nodded and turned the other way, heading further into the Bus. Phil grinned; he could just hear the speculation now. They were going to be so disappointed when they took off without getting to meet him.

 

Phil strode into the hangar bay, carefully adjusting his sling. “Mack, it’s okay. Agent Barton is with the Avengers.”

 

Mack just gave him a look, his hands steady as he trained a gun on the Avenger in question. “I’m aware of that, sir,” he replied. “Doesn’t mean we shouldn’t be careful.” Phil tilted his head, conceding the point. His eyes strayed to the man standing perfectly at ease on the asphalt, completely unconcerned with the gun aimed at his head. Blue eyes were watching him back, drinking him in almost hungrily. When Barton saw his arm in the sling, he blinked, then frowned, taking a step forward before being brought up shortly by Mack cocking the gun.

 

“Mack, it’s okay. I’ll take care of it,” Phil repeated calmly. “Please go inside and make sure the others are preparing to leave.” And not trying to find a way to sneak around Phil to meet the famous Hawkeye, he didn’t add. The other man would know what he meant.

 

Mack gave the archer another warning glare, but then put the safety back on the gun and tucked it into its holster, turning on his heels to head back into the Bus. “I hope you know what you’re doing,” he muttered as he passed Phil.

 

“I do,” the Director acknowledged with a grim smile. Mack just huffed, but disappeared back inside after one last glance over his shoulder at their unexpected guest.

 

That left Phil and Clint standing there, regarding each other silently. Phil’s lips twitched slightly; if he stayed quiet, Barton would break first, but he was on a time limit and there was undoubtedly a lot to be said. “So…I’m alive,” he said at last.

 

“I noticed,” Clint replied wryly. “Missing a few pieces, though.” There were so many unspoken words there that Phil wasn’t really sure what – if anything – to answer first.

 

Instead, he sighed. “Well, yes. It was that or be turned to stone. And I don’t think there’s a cure for that particular problem yet.” Clint stared at him in disbelief, and Phil’s smile widened. “There’s been a lot going on lately.”

 

“So I’ve gathered,” Clint drawled. He glanced behind Phil at the waiting plane. “Are you leaving?” he asked. “Or could I coax you for a brief walk in the garden?” Considering that they were surrounded by asphalt, desert, and not much else, Phil wasn’t sure where Clint thought they’d find some privacy, but he nodded. He owed the other man that much, at least.

 

Satisfied, Clint turned his back on Phil and strode away. Phil blinked, surprised; he had thought that Clint would have made him walk in front, would have been worried that he’d bolt into the plane and leave Clint behind. Again. To show him his back like this was a sign of trust that Phil wasn’t sure he’d be capable of if their situations were reversed.

 

With a quiet sigh, he followed the archer. About a hundred feet out, Clint stopped, blocked from the sun by the hangar. Phil stopped a few feet away, then watched with interest as Clint fiddled with something – undoubtedly Stark Tech of some sort – on his bow before tucking it away. There was a quiet hum, then silence, but Clint seemed satisfied. “There. Now we won’t be overheard,” he said pleasantly. He grinned. “How likely are they to panic if they can’t listen in?” he asked.

 

Phil shrugged. “I’m sure they’ll manage,” he replied wryly. “Unless you actually point your bow at me, I think they’ll give us at least until time runs out before trying anything.”

 

Clint’s body relaxed and he slumped casually against the building behind him.

 

Apparently deciding not to waste any time, Clint blurted out, “Were you ever going to tell us?” Phil’s brief hesitation must’ve been too long, because Clint growled in frustration, running his hands through his hair. “What the hell, Phil?” he demanded. “I mean, I get it. I really do. Fury used your death to motivate the others, to bring the Avengers together. But why didn’t you tell us after you’d recovered? Why did I have to find out that you were alive from fucking Hydra intelligence?” he demanded.

 

Phil frowned. “Hydra?” he asked.

 

Clint rolled his eyes. “Yes, Hydra. Embedded in SHIELD. Taken out almost single-handedly by our fearless leader. Remember that?”

 

“Hard not to,” Phil admitted. “We lost a lot of good agents that day.” He dropped his eyes for a moment at the memories. When SHIELD had collapsed, Phil had been stranded, not sure what he was doing or where he was going. Hell, he hadn’t even been able to trust his own team, in the end. He swallowed. “Afterwards, I…looked for you,” he admitted. “You and Natasha. But I couldn’t find you.” Those weeks following SHIELD’s collapse had been some of the most awful weeks of his life.

 

Clint’s smile didn’t reach his eyes. “Yeah, well, Stark was hiding us pretty damn well,” he replied darkly. “Nat was running around with Cap and a new guy, looking for Cap’s long-lost buddy. I was lucky enough to be able to get a call to Stark for an extraction when I realized that my cover had been blown to hell.”

 

Phil nodded; he had hoped that it was just that circumstances had forced his two agents to go completely underground, rather than that they had been captured when Hydra had turned on the rest of SHIELD. The only reason Phil had known that the two of them were alive prior to the incident in Sokovia was because there had been reports of the Avengers taking out Hydra bases, and there simply weren’t that many archers in SHIELD. And Clint wouldn’t have stayed with the Avengers if he had lost Natasha. The two were inseparable, ever since Clint had dragged the unconscious Widow into SHIELD and begged Phil to take her on. He’d never had cause to regret it.

 

“I’m surprised Mr. Stark isn’t here, actually,” Phil said instead. Apologies were neither warranted nor wanted; they’d both done what needed to be done after the collapse of SHIELD.

 

Clint shrugged. “Yeah, well, Stark’s in a bit of hot water right now,” he replied casually. “You know, killer robot tries to destroy the world. And nobody’s crazy enough to blame the doc for anything.” He grinned, “But you should meet Vision. I think you’d like him.”

 

Phil frowned. “Vision?” It seemed that there had been some changes to the Avengers Initiative in recent months. There had been rumors, recently, about a guy who could shrink and talk to insects and a girl who could mess with people’s head. They sounded similar to Inhumans, but none of the people that Skye knew had heard of them. Phil would need to check SHIELD’s archives and see if he could find any similar instances of such abilities, but for now, none of that mattered, and he shook his head. “Never mind,” he decided. They didn’t have time for this.

 

Clint stepped forward, encroaching on Phil’s space. He held his ground, looking slightly up at Clint as the archer stopped a hair’s breadth away from him. Phil’s hand reached out to grip just above Clint’s hip, where the other man had been shot and stabbed in short order.

 

Clint grimaced. “Ah, yeah, that kind of sucked,” he muttered. “Luckily, Stark knows people,” he added brightly. Phil chuckled, relieved that Tony, for whatever reason, had come across Helen Cho and kept her information. Without SHIELD’s resources, it was hard to find people of Stark’s – or even Doctor Banner’s – caliber that hadn’t been compromised. Phil supposed that there might be healers among the Inhumans, but they were still far too wary to reveal any of their abilities that weren’t already known.

 

“I thought I’d lost you,” Phil admitted, his voice quiet despite the tech that was keeping their conversation private. “When Nick Fury told me that you’d survived, I wanted to come to you. I just couldn’t.”

 

“Couldn’t? Or wouldn’t?” Clint rejoined. He held up a hand. “Wait, no, never mind,” he backtracked. “That wasn’t fair of me,” he apologized.

 

Phil shrugged. Maybe, but it wasn’t an unfair question, either. “Both,” he admitted. “There’s a lot going on right now, and I can’t tell you everything, but we’re barely keeping ahead of Hydra. And with most of our facilities compromised, we lost a lot of very bad people that we have to track down again.”

 

Clint smirked. “Yeah, about that,” he drawled, “do yourself a favor a keep outta the Winter Soldier’s way, okay? He’s Cap’s old war buddy, and he’s single-handedly taken down at least five Hydra holdouts that we’re aware of.”

 

Phil blinked. “War buddy?” he asked incredulously. “Barnes?” The sniper was the only one of the Captain’s men that SHIELD had no records of beyond a few sketch details of what happened on that mountain. And if Hydra had any notes on the Winter Soldier’s origins, they hadn’t been found yet.

 

Clint nodded. “Yep.” His eyes flickered up, looking at something over Phil’s shoulders, and the older man sighed.

 

“Mack?” he asked, not bothering to turn around. Normally it would’ve been Agent May, or even Bobbi, but both agents were gone now, and Mack was probably the next best choice.

 

Clint raised an eyebrow. “If Mack is a big dude that looks like he could snap my neck in one hand, then yes,” he agreed solemnly. Glee flickered across his expression, and he ducked his head a bit, his hands coming up to frame Coulson’s face. “Fine, I’ll go, but just so you know, Nat’s planning to come knocking just as soon as she’s back from Cap’s latest run.”

 

Phil sighed, well aware of how this must look to the man quickly approaching them. “I shall consider myself duly warned, Agent Barton,” he said. He hesitated for a moment, then asked, “Are you planning on sticking with them, then? The Avengers?”

 

Clint shrugged. “I don’t know,” he answered honestly. “It’s not really my kind of gig, but they’re kind of like family, you know?”   He grinned.   “Pains in the asses, but somebody’s gotta watch out for them.”

 

Phil smiled, pulling back from their almost-embrace as Mack stepped up next to them, keeping a respectful, but prudent, distance, his eyes flickering between the two men as he tried to figure out just what, exactly, their relationship was. Clint found it incredibly entertaining to keep them guessing, and Phil humored him more often than not. It kept the junior agents on their toes, after all, whenever either of them was nearby.

 

Clint pressed something into Phil’s hand before stepping back. There was a small popping noise, and Phil knew that whatever silencing technology had been there had been cancelled. “Keep in touch, yeah?” Clint asked cheekily, giving Mack a cheerful wave before sauntering off.

 

“Yes,” Phil agreed bemusedly, watching the archer walk away. He stayed where he was until Clint turned a corner out of sight.

 

“Sir?” Mack asked, watching him carefully. “Are you alright?”

 

Phil nodded and turned back towards the Bus and his waiting teammates. “Yeah, I’m good,” he answered back, his fist closing tightly around the small arrow-shaped cufflinks Clint had pressed into his palms. It was a reminder and a promise, one that they both understood implicitly.

 

“Let’s go.”

**Author's Note:**

> I am very liberal in what I took from the Age of Ultron movie, mostly because I disagree with BruceNat, and Laura and the kids don't really work for this one (though since nothing actually happens between Clint and Phil, I suppose they could still exist. Maybe.)


End file.
